A Fractured Tale
by ju1i3Oh
Summary: Beauty & The Beast – Fairy Tail rendition. On-going


Sum: Beauty & The Beast – Fairy Tail rendition.

GraLu 2014 prompt used: Fairy Dust

A/N: So I had this idea in my head since the beginning of GraLu week. I had been excited since this is my favorite Disney Princess movie and well two(2) of my favorite OPs already have "The Beauty and The Beast" fic/concept written and completed...and well I wanted to do one for Gray x Lucy! Of course it's not going to go exactly as the movie-it's a rendition my own input and changes, but hopefully it'll come out okay! I hope you guys like the first chapter! Feedback would be lovely!

**Standard Disclaimer applied.**

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><p>A Fractured Tale: The Beauty &amp; the Beast<p>

I.

_It began a long time ago. _

_Several hundreds of years before Fate's intervention set foot on winter's doorstep. An era where demon races were scarce quickly declining by numbers as the neighboring humans—the few that knew about them—grew wary of their superior strength, agility, knowledge and bewitching beauty. _

"_Gray! Run! Run faraway!"_

_The small child's eyes glistened as he reached for his mother's hand only to have that hand push him away "I said run and don't look back! I need to go help your father!"_

"_B-But m-m-mother-!"Gray started at his mother's sudden embrace, the miniature trembling of her shoulders as she held him closer and shaky breaths were forever engraved in his memory._

"_Go, we'll find you," her soft hands held his face as she placed a chaste kiss on his forehead "I promise." _

_Gray managed a tearful smile before heeding his mother's words. The distance was growing farther and farther and all that he could see was his mother waving before racing back to their home. _

_And he kept running. _

_Running until his short legs folded under him and with them his heart as the ringing in his ears continued from the explosion that went off not too long ago as he fled._

..

..

Several hundred years pass…

..

..

Her heart was thundering behind her ribcage as she traversed the freezing landscape barefooted and numb. She didn't dare rest and take a look at how her feet were doing because she knew they were probably bleeding and swollen, the thought itself made her want to curl up.

Lucy cursed when her gown's skirt caught on a low branch. She had no time to waste, she gripped and pulled trying her hardest not to throw a tantrum as her arms shook be it from the weather or emotion she didn't know. She was scared. So scared.

And her heart was hurting.

At a sharp tug the fabric tore leaving one pale leg visible, chilled from the snow covered ground as she fell backwards. The adrenaline that was once thriving in her veins seemed to be settling down leaving her feeling tired and cold.

"_Father? What are we doing here?" she tugged the bodice of her red floral gown just a bit higher under her coat trying in vain to cover her embarrassingly abundant breasts from overflowing. "Where are we?"_

_Her hand was just shy of his shoulder when her father turned an angry glare her way "Why must you ask such questions? I am your father, so, you shall listen and keep silent!"_

_She missed her father, Jude Heartfilia, the man he used to be before her mother's passing. She was too small to really remember her dear mother, only bits and pieces of memories would appear here and there but they were enough to tell her how much of a kindred spirit Layla had been. The man standing before her was distant, always angry and always hateful towards her. Was she to blame for her mother's passing?_

"_Do you understand?" _

_At her father's glare she nodded numbly, quick to follow as he set foot beyond the imposing gate decorated with embellished stones. Her throat tightened as she walked two steps behind her father, her eyes taking in tall statues strikingly beautiful as David even covered by the snow or at least from books she's read that illustrated David but these statues were different, upon their head lay horns of varieties while sharp canines protruded from their mouths in vengeful rage. _

_As distracted as she was, Lucy took no notice of when they had entered the lavish mansion being ushered towards the main room. It was until they were left alone did she gather her courage to ask once more of their location._

_She didn't receive a scathing comment she was sure to come, what had frightened her most was the silent foreboding look her father gave._

_The door had suddenly opened and her brown gaze landed on the graceful man with dark strands and equally dark robes with a white toga draped around his torso giving them a glimpse of his opened collar. This man was dangerous._

_A gasp escaped her lips once his eyes…red eyes landed on her. _

"_Such an exquisite creature," suddenly he was standing less than a foot in front of her invading her personal space. And she felt naked without her coat._

"_Will you keep your end of the bargain?"_

_Lucy didn't think she could move a single cell in her body. _

"_Only, if only what you declared concurs without false judgment" slowly the man's hand descended "if she does not fall into death's hands under my touch like the others then I will keep my end."_

_Lucy's mind started spinning. Death? Bargain? Red eyes? The statues outside, the paintings hung about the mansion walls...this man—no he was not human. This man whose frightening eyes scrutinize her was something humans thought of extinct, the demons that once ruled over half of the lands and governed behind closed doors with secrets unknown._

_She's read and studied much about them, about the first demons humans had ever encountered. Their appearance was that of bewitching humans with far superior strength, agility and knowledge. They had unimaginable powers bestowed on them that at times their appearance may alter such as horns appearing on their heads or sharp canines on their mouths. _

_And this man—demon was the first she had ever encountered in her seventeen years of life._

"_F-Fa-!" her voice abruptly diminished before she could call out to her father, her lips silenced by fingers slowly caressing them as if cautiously testing dangerous waters. Slowly those fingers followed along the path of her jaw to finally rest on her neck where her racing pulse would definitely be felt._

"_You may leave Sir Heartfilia."_

_The blonde gentleman was displeased "what about Layla, my wife!?_

_At the sound of her mother's name she stepped away from the demon's touch "What about mother? What are you saying father?"_

"_Your father, it seems heard about my issue in finding a queen to join in my rule, someone who I could keep by my side without turning into dust" Lucy's eyes widened as he grasped a blonde strand "he offered his lovely daughter, Lucy Heartfilia to be my queen in return for his dead wife's life."_

"_My name is Zeref, I am a powerful demon and now your groom."_

"_N-No…" this wasn't happening! Father did no such thing! Frantically she turned towards her father "Father it isn't true…it can't be true—it's ludicrous!"_

_Silence only followed._

"_Father?"_

"_Silence! You will not speak like that to me!" she watched her father's face filled with rage "You know nothing of the pain and suffering when Layla passed!"_

"_I loved mother as well!"_

"_I said silence!"_

"_!" Her eyes fogged as if maybe seeing things, but the sharp pain on her cheek had been enough proof of her father's brutality. The truth of what was being said, her father had sold her in exchange for her mother who had passed. Was it really possible to bring back the dead?_

"_I-I will not!" she started stepping back keeping her eyes on both parties "I will not be his queen and I will not be your fool Father!"_

_She ran._

"_Lucy!" _

She had ran, but now it seemed she was at the end of her line with nowhere else to go. Had she done the right thing? Was it wise choosing to run than be sacrificed for her mother's sake?

Selfishness runs deeply in human veins.

She should not be surprised.

She should not feel pain.

She should not shed tears…and yet that is exactly what she is doing.

The falling snow, she thought, looked like small clouds coming down from the skies waiting to sweep her away once they've gather beneath her. Her limbs she realized were numb from the frigid temperature it was only before long that hypothermia would start setting in. As hazy as her mind was, she watched with heavy lidded eyes as the snow continued to fall.

"…Happy come look!"

And it seemed that she was of no right mind if she was hearing things.

A shadowy figure entered her peripheral vision for a second before darkness enveloped her.

..

..

How many years has it been?

A couple hundred? Three?

It seemed like several life times ago… and yet everything that had happened that day was so fresh in his mind that he was afraid to close his eyes when night approached. His father, his mother taken from his grasp in the blink of an eyes from those worthless humans who feared the unknown. Who feared the immortal, feared what was stronger, feared what was different from them.

They were loathing specimen.

From the shadows casted around the frozen landscape, he enjoyed solitude away from the guild who had welcomed him—a stray like several other demons into their home, away from a six-hundred year old fire demon who spoke of ridiculous rivalry, away from a spine-chilling red haired mother hen who tried keeping Natsu and him in line, away from a lovely water demon who would follow him to the ends of hell and back—his heart was not ready to love anyone for a very long time especially with his accursed appearance.

He had made a foolish mistake once a long time ago that had cost him dearly.

Where there once stood a regal, alluring young demon now stood a fear inducing demon with jagged wings made of ice, the tips of his ears encased in ice to form narrow horns along the side of his head, his once smooth hands forged into horrendous claws worthy of inflicting pain and destruction, as the bottom half of his face was veiled with an ice-sculpted skeleton resembling that of the lower half of a human's skull pinpointing the connecting jaw joint.

He was a repulsive monster!

With one last cruel barb at his self-loathing, he entered what was now considered home. A home that had been in loud commotion ever since his walk, even in the long distance he had snippets of what was being exchanged.

"You must take it back from where you found it!"

"Can't you see she is in death's door?!"

"Aye sir!"

"I have to agree with Natsu, Juvia we cannot abandon the helpless. Remember Master's teachings-"

"Juvia understands Erza, but Gray-sama will not welcome such-"

Gray's dark blue eyes glanced passed the dozen or so occupants littering the guild's common room sitting on tables or along the bar stools their gazes filled with nervousness as they briefly stole glimpses his way. A spark of dread filled his veins as the voices grew louder behind the nursing station's door located behind the grand staircase.

A frown marred his features at the idiots arguing within the nursing quarters that had yet to hear him, it wasn't until the knob was turned that the voiced had silenced.

"G-Gray-sama how nice of you to come, would you like some of Mira-san's shaved ice?" he easily dismissed her meager excuse of a distraction as he turned towards Natsu and Erza.

The room's temperature dropped drastically.

"What are you doing with _that_ wretched human!" a deadly growl flew past his skeletal barrier as he glared down at the human resting within Natsu's arms. Her pale complexion said she had signs of hyperthermia but that did not matter to him the blonde girl was trash along with those other human scum!

"I'm saving her life! Disperse your ice before I tear you a new face ice breath!" the pink haired demon threatened as he continued warming the girl.

"Gray calm yourself!"

"Gray-sama…"

"I will not calm myself!" he dislodged his arm from Juvia's grip as he stepped forward with a menacing aurora. There was liquid fire rage running through his veins, he body shook "Away with that pest!"

Natsu started to stand with the human "Why you-"

The nursing room's door suddenly slammed open as a short elderly man stormed in sending sharp gazes at the occupants. Master Markarov stood between the ice and fire demon clearing his throat "what seems to be the problem?"

"That," Gray pointed a clawed finger at the still unconscious girl within Natsu's arms "needs to go."

Natsu glared, "she needs help! I found her lying in the forest cold and unmoving, she seemed to be running from something-"

"And that exactly why we can't keep her. Humans always bring problems."

Master Markarov silenced both.

Slowly the elderly man walked towards the girl "we cannot abandon the helpless you know that Gray."

"But-!"

"Even if she is human, even if she were our kind we Fairy Tail do not abandon. We care, breed understanding, share and love; that is who we are."

It was in that moment where the demons' keen hearing picked up the first sign of consciousness from the girl. He watched with dark eyes as she opened hers slowly, he watched as Natsu shifted her into a sitting position, watched as confusion and apprehension set in those wide brown eyes, and watched as a fear sipped in when those eyes of hers landed on him.

She started backing away.

Tch.

"Do what you want," he stormed away feeling repulsed with himself because for that single second that her eyes met his, he had thought that she was beautiful.


End file.
